Why Cloud Technology is a Godsend for all Start-ups

Since traditional desktop computing has taken a backseat, cloud computing is emerging as a reliable paradigm in the computer industry for all the start-ups, due to the ease it provides in terms of accessing data and applications anywhere and at anytime on any mobile or laptop devices at reasonable prices. Being user centric, cloud facilitates small businesses to adopt and access latest technologies, which were earlier difficult to reach, and thus, making them able to challenge both rival small businesses and other established big businesses.

Initially, it was uncertain whether industries or start-ups would accept cloud computing or not, but later through the advent of giants IT industries into cloud computing confirmed its adequacy and capability. Now, according to a research, every year around 30% of the start-ups enters into the ever-active cloud computing market and gives tough competition to their competitors in order to flourish, thrive and to amend the technology landscape.

Since, cloud technology is picking up the pace faster; today businesses of all size are investing in cloud computing infrastructure and platforms giving rise to the public cloud market size by 20 percent in recent years. Also, a study suggests that this cloud adoption has grown at a 30% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2013 to 2018, augmenting the CASB (Cloud application security broker) market in the process.

Whatsoever technology you choose- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), the growth rates are the same. The continual growth of the start-up’s and the increased IT budget are the key elements that fostered cloud computing adoption.

The facts revealed by Cloud Security Alliance are highly considerable- 33% of organizations have attained a “full steam ahead” attitude while others are spending a small portion of their IT budget on cloud services, which plainly states that cloud technology is unstoppable. Also, IT managers are continuously getting requests from end users to buy cloud applications with file sharing, social media and content sharing, and collaboration every month.

There are several factors that encouraged start-ups to adopt cloud technology including improved productivity, lower costs, and the improving market. Even start-ups that didn’t belong to the IT niche were actively involved in discussing cloud strategies to benefit the business as a whole. Evidently, an increase of average 20.66% in market time, 18.80% in process efficiency, and 15.07% reduction in IT spending, has been witnessed by the companies having cloud infrastructure, which, altogether, provided an increase of 19.63% in the company’s growth. We have identified and enlisted advantages of cloud computing that lead to irrefutable improvements for start-up businesses:

Applications are regularly updated, so you can easily access latest Software

Cloud computing provides its users the advantage of accessing the latest versions of all the applications as soon as they are released. With SaaS, application upgrades are done immediately to release new features and functionality into the user’s hands. Additionally, software enhancements are released frequently in contrast to the purchased software that introduces new releases only once a year.

Cloud vendors handle all the tasks and thus, reducing the IT costs

The beauty of cloud computing is that it reduces IT costs without altering a company’s capabilities. The tasks of installing and updating software, managing email servers or file servers, running backups are completely handled by cloud vendors which significantly reduce the need of extra servers, the software cost, and team hiring.

You no longer have to pay for the unused capacity

Unlike other software or technologies, cloud computing is ideal for businesses with fluctuating bandwidths as they have to pay only for the required server and infrastructure capacity as and when needed. If a company requires more capacity, it is provisioned for the peak times and if they need to scale it down, it is baked into the service, whereas in traditional computing, companies had to buy capacity sufficient for peak times while keeping it in idle state for the rest of the time.

With cloud computing, greater reliability is assured

When it comes to reliability, since cloud computing is hosted by third party, majority of the cloud providers maintains 99.99% uptime and are particularly reliable. As long as you have got an internet connection, you can be at work and can access data and applications and, since cloud services are offering mobile apps, you’re not at all restricted by which device you’ve got to hand. Not to mention, few applications even work off-line and in case of any problems, 24*7 customer support is easily accessible.

With cloud computing users can access data while working remotely

Cloud applications are browser-based so no matter how remotely you are working, you can access all your data and applications easily. The ease of taking your work anywhere via smart phones and tablets- while roaming through a retail store, visiting customers at their places, or working in the field – is one of the best advantages that you can seize. For instance, you can access accounting data on your android or Apple compatible phone with using cloud-based accounting applications and can track expenses, send invoices etc.

You no longer have to stick to system hardware

It could be exciting to know that cloud computing can perpetually reduce the size of the company’s own data centre. Generally servers/computers are packed with file storage, data backup and software programs, but with cloud computing, you can free up your in-house equipments or get rid of some of it with storing all this data on someone else’s servers.

Allows your team to work collaboratively

As data and applications are accessible, sharable and editable remotely, dispersed groups of people can work collaboratively and can easily share information in real time. The file sharing app and cloud-based workflow reduces time-to-market while improving product development and customer service parallel to each other.

Disaster recovery

A disaster can be fatal for businesses; therefore big companies invest in a robust disaster recovery infrastructure, but for a start-up, investing in such expensive recovery software is more an ideal than the reality. Such start-ups, now, can buck the trend by implementing cloud-based backup and recovery solutions and amazingly can save their time with avoiding large up-front investment.

The above mentioned benefits have convinced businesses to move into the cloud, but according to the Cloud Security Alliance there are still some barriers that holds back cloud adoption. Most of the companies are concerned for their data security, regulatory compliance, and the loss of control over IT services. But, in reality they can address their security and compliance concerns with investing in closing the cloud skills gap to take the full advantage of cloud services.